Senior Reporter

An hour after Michael McGurk was shot dead, Senad Kaminic received a message saying: ''The tyres are done''. However, the former Bosnian soldier had forgotten the code. He only realised later the message did not refer to real tyres but was code for the murder of Mr McGurk, a Sydney court has heard.

Mr McGurk was shot dead outside his Cremorne house at 6.25pm on September 3, 2009. Ron Medich is facing a committal hearing with the Crown claiming he wanted Mr McGurk dead because the two were embroiled in litigation over property disputes involving millions of dollars.

The day after the murder, the Herald photographed Mr Medich meeting his right-hand man Lucky Gattellari at their favourite haunt, Tuscany restaurant in Leichhardt.

Senad Kaminic: Got message. Photo: Brendan Esposito

Mr Medich's committal hearing has been told Mr Medich was in an agitated state when he arrived at the restaurant and Gattellari was trying to calm him down.

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Gattellari's driver, Kaminic, 45, said he believed those at the lunch were talking in code about the murder, using words such as ''our friend'' for Mr McGurk and ''the job'' meaning the murder.

Kaminic also said there were journalists outside the restaurant and that Mr Medich was upset. He said that he heard his boss Gattellari telling Mr Medich to ''stay calm''.

During the lunch, one of Mr Medich's lunch companions delivered a statement to waiting media. It read: ''Recently, Mr Medich has been a party to proceedings relating to commercial matters in which Michael McGurk was also a party. Approximately three weeks ago, a significant part of one of those proceedings was settled amicably. Mr McGurk's murder is tragic and Mr Medich's sympathy goes out to his wife and children. Mr Medich has no further comment to make.''

But Mr Medich's committal hearing has heard that after paying for Mr McGurk to be murdered, Mr Medich paid $100,000 for Mr McGurk's widow Kimberley to be threatened.

Gattellari told the hearing that when Mrs McGurk did not pay Mr Medich the millions he claimed he was owed by her murdered husband's estate, he said to Gattellari: ''The bitch must have been part of this from the start, she is as tough as he was.''

On Wednesday Kaminic told Central Local Court that he received $10,000 commission for his role in organising for Mrs McGurk to be threatened. But unbeknown to the conspirators, the person they hired to intimidate Mrs McGurk was in fact a registered police informant.

Police were watching and recording on August 8, 2010, as the man, who was wearing a wig, knocked on the door and told Mrs McGurk: ''Pay your husband's debts.''

Kaminic told the committal hearing that he had never had any direct conversation with Mr Medich about the murder of Mr McGurk. But he did say that sometime in May 2009, Gattellari directed him to pick up Mr Medich from his Point Piper house and take him to the airport.

He said Mr Medich handed him a bag, saying: ''Here is $150,000 cash for the job. Give it to Lucky.''

He said that he understood from Gattellari that the money was for the killing.

Kaminic and Gattellari have both received substantial discounts on their sentences for giving evidence against Mr Medich.

The magistrate offered to issue an arrest warrant for the next witness, Ron Mason, who has gone camping.

The court has heard that only weeks before the McGurk murder Mr Mason, a former executive of a south coast Aboriginal land council, organised a job interview at the Malabar RSL Club for a possible hitman - the fourth to be offered the job. He was deemed too expensive by Gattellari.